Mobile phones and the like that are operable by a touch pad suffer from the problem of incorrectly executing processing (hereinafter referred to as a “malfunction”) corresponding to a location on the touch pad that, for example, is touched by a user's ear or cheek while the user is talking.
One known method of addressing this problem is to provide a sensor near the speaker of the mobile phone or the like in order to detect a touch by an ear or the like, and to invalidate input from the touch pad when the sensor detects such a touch (for example, Patent Literature 1).
Providing an additional sensor, however, is not necessarily an appropriate solution in terms of cost. It would be preferable to prevent malfunction without going to the trouble of providing a sensor.
As compared to when users perform normal operations with their fingers, when the ear or another body part touches the touch pad, the touch is typically characterized by being maintained for a longer time, or by several locations being touched. One possibility, therefore, is to detect such characteristics using a program, and upon detection, to suppress performance of processing corresponding to the touched location. Malfunction could thus be prevented without providing an additional sensor.